Slain girl's father stripped by cops

Photos taken to show suspect not abused

After Kevin Fox allegedly implicated himself in his 3-year-old daughter's murder, he was stripped and photographed by Will County law enforcers, says the federal civil rights lawsuit filed on his behalf.

Officials confirmed the photographs were taken to show Fox was not abused during his 14-hour, 20-minute interrogation, which ended with his arrest and a nearly eight-month stint in the County Jail before DNA test results set him free.

The lawsuit says that taking photographs of naked defendants "was standard protocol" under former State's Atty. Jeff Tomczak, a practice that has since been rejected by Tomczak's successor, James Glasgow.

Tomczak on Friday said he never ordered the practice.

But a spokesman for Sheriff Paul Kaupas said that under Tomczak's administration, it was policy for murder defendants who made incriminating statements to be stripped and photographed before booking.

The purpose was to show they were not beaten, said sheriff spokesman Pat Barry. The policy, which he confirmed has been discontinued, was implemented by a top Tomczak deputy who is no longer a prosecutor, he said.

Critics of the practice said it was unnecessary and might violate constitutional rights.

They said authorities could abuse suspects in ways that don't leave marks. And they wondered whether the photos would be part of the public record, available under Freedom of Information Act requests.

"Anytime you have a photograph or tape recording, you are afraid someone could get their hands on it," said Fox's attorney, Kathleen Zellner.

During the early stages of discovery--the exchange of documents between defense attorneys and prosecutors--Zellner said she received Fox's videotaped statement, as well as photos of the crime scene and Riley's autopsy.

She was taken aback to find five photos of Fox, naked to varying degrees in all of them, she said. Two were taken from the waist up, and two from the waist down, including one in which Fox was covering his genitalia while clad only in socks, she said.

A fifth was of his back, with Fox wearing underwear, she said. In that photo, one can see a tattoo of Riley with the words "my little angel," she said.

Now in private practice, Tomczak said he was unaware of the photographs until he read about them in the amended complaint, which was filed July 25. The initial lawsuit was filed in November.

"That was the first I actually heard of it, when I read it in the lawsuit," Tomczak said. "I wouldn't have had the constitutional authority" to establish such a policy, he said.

Attempts to locate the top deputy identified by Barry were not successful.

Glasgow said Friday he never issued an order to stop the practice. But he also said he would not recommend the procedure.

"The best evidence that a person hasn't been abused is a report from a trained medical professional, over photographs," he said. "When someone is beaten, the bruises might not be visible for hours."

John Gorman, a spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office, said he had never heard of taking such photographs of a defendant as a matter of routine.

His office wouldn't sanction it, he added.

"That certainly would be a violation of the defendant's rights," he said.

A civil rights watchdog also had concerns.

"We think this raises very serious constitutional concerns," said Benjamin Wolf, associate legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. "We think it raises many significant issues about privacy and the right of people not to have their bodies photographed without their consent."

Wolf also said the photographs are "no proof that someone wasn't harmed," noting Chicago murder defendants have alleged that during interrogation they had plastic bags placed over their heads, were hit in the head with phone books and were subjected to electric shocks--all illegal methods that may not leave marks.

Many jurisdictions have someone with medical training examine a defendant after an interrogation to prove they weren't harmed, he said.

Another method is to videotape the interrogation, as recently mandated in Illinois murder cases under a law that was not in effect when Fox was arrested, Wolf said. Only Fox's 20-minute statement was taped.

"This shows all the more why we need a full electronic record of the entire interrogation," said Rob Warden, executive director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law.

Warden said the photographing "does not seem particularly abusive," but he nevertheless questioned its efficacy.

"The vast majority of false confessions are not the result of physical abuse, but psychological coercion, which of course leaves no marks," he said.

In his suit, Fox alleged he was subjected to psychological coercion orchestrated by Tomczak six days before an election that Glasgow won. Tomczak has denied committing "any of the wrongful or unlawful acts alleged in the complaint."